About Me

A 40-ish publisher (editor, project manager, etc.), husband, and father of an even number of offspring, I grew up, or failed to, reading fantasy and sci-fi. I still enjoy reading, and now am trying to write. My favorite books include YA fantasy, manga, biography, and advice to authors. I'm also a former history major/grad student/high school teacher and assessment writer. Now I work for a school supplement publisher, specializing in high-low chapter books. I spend a lot of my time controlling reading levels. At night, I cut loose and use long words. W00t!

Monday, October 3, 2011

a "makers versus takers" type email

I was distressed that a friend forwarded this email:

Subject: FW: FREE STUFF.... Worth reading. > > > I have never heard this said as plain or as well. > > Class war at its best. > > The folks who are getting the free stuff, don't like the folks who are > paying for the free stuff, because the folks who are paying for the free > stuff, can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own > stuff. > > > > And, > > > > The folks who are paying for the free stuff, want the free stuff to stop and > the folks who are getting the free stuff, > > want even more free stuff on top of the free stuff they are already getting. > > > > Now... The people who are forcing the people who Pay for the free stuff, > have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff, that the people who > are PAYING for the free stuff, are being mean, prejudiced, and racist. > > > > So, the people who are GETTING the free stuff, have been convinced they need > to hate the people who are paying for the free stuff, by the people who are > forcing some people to pay for their free stuff, and giving them the free > stuff in the first place. > > > > We have let the free stuff giving go on for so long that there are now more > people getting free stuff than paying for the free stuff. > > > > Now understand this. All great democracies have committed financial suicide > somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason? The > voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by > electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in > exchange for electing them. > > > > The United States officially became a Republic in 1776, 231 years ago. The > number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the people paying for the > free stuff. We have one chance to change that in 2012. Failure to change > that spells the end of the United States as we know it. > > > > ELECTION 2012 IS COMING > > A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves. > > I'M 100% for PASSING THIS ON. > > Let's Take a Stand. > > > > > Obama: Gone. > > Borders: Closed. > > Language: English only. > > Culture: Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. > > Drug Free: Mandatory Drug Screening before Welfare. > > NO freebies to: Non-Citizens. > > We the people are coming.... > > > Only 86% will send this on. Should be 100%. What will you do? >

And I had this response:

People who do not pay income taxes (because they have little or no income) pay sales taxes. Many of them get “free stuff” in the form of temporary aid. Some of them get “free stuff” in the form of temporary aid that lasts a long time. This is a problem because they are consuming and not producing.

People who do not pay income taxes (because they have a lot of money, and spend a small portion of it to shield a greater portion from taxation) pay sales taxes. many of them get “free stuff” in the form of access to roads and bridges, fire and police protection, clean water, hurricane warnings and the like. This is a problem because the system that everyone else pays for allows them to benefit enormously without contributing to the system.

People who do pay income taxes make up the majority of Americans. They also pay sales taxes. Their tax payments educate the vast majority of the future doctors, engineers, and construction workers – of all of us. Their tax payments allow governments to build and maintain roads and bridges, test cantaloupes for dangerous bacteria, and inspect cost-cutting/profit-maximizing airlines’ planes before takeoff. They also own the airwaves that the government they pay for licenses to broadcasters. This is good because the people who pay the taxes by law make the decisions, however indirectly, in government.

This is where it gets interesting. The people who don’t pay income taxes (because they have enough money to shield their money) own a lot of broadcast media. They do it as individuals, as corporations, and as interest groups. They are a bit scared of the people who do pay most of the income taxes. They have a choice: fight us (hard) or co-opt us (not quite as hard). They have tools for fighting (bloody) and tools for co-option (less bloody).

I’m glad they chose the easier, less bloody route of telling you what to think. Now I am still alive to tell you what I think. I think they are filling your head with misinformation.

If there’s a class war, who won? The people who are out of work and hopeless and still sitting on their hands, or the people who are comfortable and well-fed and in control of media and government? Or, to use the original writer’s metaphor, the wealthiest are the wolves.

I have to get back to work if I’m going to continue supporting public education (my kids are in school right now), the interstate highway system (how I get to work and how my food gets to the grocery store), the public utilities commission (which helps keep electricity rates down so my boss can keep the lights on), et cetera, ad nauseam.

What is this?

I read a lot, always have. And I've always been kind of absent-minded. And talkative. Definitely a word maven. Problem was, I would often forget where and in what context I'd recently read something interesting when I was talking about it. (This is in no way a response to that kind of situation.)